Jailed Teachers Freed; Feud to Be Arbitrated

The nearly 230 jailed teachers--about one-fourth of the 1,000-member Middletown Township staff--were ordered freed after they and their colleagues agreed to end a bitter nine-day strike. It was the nation’s biggest mass jailing of striking teachers in 23 years.

The teachers decided to return to class next week while the dispute between their union and the Board of Education goes to mediation.

Teachers in the well-to-do community walked out Nov. 29 over health benefits, but a judge issued a back-to-work order.

When they defied the order, the judge began sending them to jail Monday to try to end the strike: He and two other judges went down a list of names alphabetically; they made it into the Rs.